I think I'm being trolled
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Once in a few days, I get a phone call from a number I don't know. This is a different number each time, and every time I talk back to them, they hang up. Once I got the bloke at the other end to talk first, but he hung up as soon as I started to speak.
I thought this to be some kind of a scam at first, but a few blokes texted me instead of calling. Turns out someone out there is posing as a girl and gives dudes my number left and right; the texting guys were clearly trying to go on a date with me. Well, they were embarrassed whenever I answered.
Now that Facebook is an excellent stalking tool (you can search for people by their phone number), I looked a few of those numbers up. Single guys 35-45 years old, most of them not the sharpest knives in the drawer, and all of them roughly from my area.
Now I can't blame the dudes, but I'm wondering who the fuck is giving them my number and what's the best way to find out and troll back...
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Try asking the ones who text how they got your number?
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@wft I'd just change my number
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It's not necessarily trolling - could be a perfectly nice lady with an off by one error on her leaflet.
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@clatter said in I think I'm being trolled:
could be a perfectly nice lady with an off by one error on her leaflet.
Paging @OffByOne
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Break up with a vicious lady recently?
Or maybe you need to track her down and give her the rejection hotline number...
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When I was in college, some friends posted an advert for plumbing services with my mobile number. It happened to be on a day when I'd left my phone at home, and when I got home I had loads of voicemails asking for help with plumbing. I didn't know about the prank at the time so was very confused, and changed my voicemail greeting to "I am not a plumber"
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@Yamikuronue said in I think I'm being trolled:
Break up with a vicious lady recently?
Don't think so, not in the last 2 and a half years. The few last ladies to break up with me weren't that slow on uptake.
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@Jaloopa said in I think I'm being trolled:
when I got home I had loads of voicemails asking for help with plumbing
A guy I used to work with once answered somebody who had inadvertently dialled his office number while trying to book a delivery of concrete for a building site. He didn't miss a beat. Got the site address, the required volume and grade of concrete, agreed to organize having mixer and pump trucks onsite at the agreed time, then just hung up and went on with his day.
I was awed. If I'd been on the other end of that line, I'd totally have bought his act.
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@flabdablet That must have been fun for the guy who placed the order, who would have likely phoned the right number when the order didn't turn up, only to be told there is no order.
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@flabdablet your friend was a dick. Someone could lose a job over this!
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@Gąska said in I think I'm being trolled:
your friend was a dick
Co-worker, and yes I'd long thought so. Didn't stop me recognizing skill when I saw it.
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@RaceProUK said in I think I'm being trolled:
That must have been fun for the guy who placed the order, who would have likely phoned the right number when the order didn't turn up, only to be told there is no order.
Knowing the guy who did this as I do, I'm quite sure that that was entirely the point.
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@flabdablet said in I think I'm being trolled:
@Jaloopa said in I think I'm being trolled:
when I got home I had loads of voicemails asking for help with plumbing
A guy I used to work with once answered somebody who had inadvertently dialled his office number while trying to book a delivery of concrete for a building site. He didn't miss a beat. Got the site address, the required volume and grade of concrete, agreed to organize having mixer and pump trucks onsite at the agreed time, then just hung up and went on with his day.
I was awed. If I'd been on the other end of that line, I'd totally have bought his act.
That is a complete and total asshole move. That contractor lost thousands of dollars in wages and rentals and other overheads just because that asshole didn't say "Wrong number." What a fucking asshole.
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@Polygeekery yeah... that's the sort of thing that, if you had any actual proof, you should really be able to come back and claim damages on. But as you wouldn't have any actual proof, if you just had the asshole's number in your outgoing call list, well... let's just say that there are really mean things you can do to someone, without getting caught, if you know their phone number and are suitably motivated. This thread is a prime example.
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@wft said in I think I'm being trolled:
I thought this to be some kind of a scam at first, but a few blokes texted me instead of calling. Turns out someone out there is posing as a girl and gives dudes my number left and right; the texting guys were clearly trying to go on a date with me. Well, they were embarrassed whenever I answered.
Start asking for gifts.
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@flabdablet said in I think I'm being trolled:
A guy I used to work with once answered somebody who had inadvertently dialled his office number while trying to book a delivery of concrete for a building site. He didn't miss a beat. Got the site address, the required volume and grade of concrete, agreed to organize having mixer and pump trucks onsite at the agreed time, then just hung up and went on with his day.
When I was in college, I lived in a house the phone number of which was @OffByOne from the local Domino's Pizza, and we'd do this all the time. Sometimes we'd relay the order to Domino's, but perhaps with, um, minor modifications. But that just meant some drunk college kid didn't get a pizza, or not quite what he wanted, not
@Polygeekery said in I think I'm being trolled:
That contractor lost thousands of dollars in wages and rentals and other overheads just because that asshole didn't say "Wrong number."
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@HardwareGeek said in I think I'm being trolled:
When I was in college, I lived in a house the phone number of which was @OffByOne from the local Domino's Pizza, and we'd do this all the time. Sometimes we'd relay the order to Domino's, but perhaps with, um, minor modifications. But that just meant some drunk college kid didn't get a pizza, or not quite what he wanted, not
One of my high school teachers told us how he used to have a number that was @OffByOne from a local taxicab agency.
After getting a few too many calls at 2 AM from drunks needing a ride home from the bar, he finally just got a different phone number.
Meanwhile, in the apartment where I used to live, I kept getting calls from bill collectors for someone named Karla. No matter how many times I told them that I have no idea who she is and she's not available at this number anymore, people still kept on calling me, for years and years, trying to get the money Karla owed them.
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@masonwheeler said in I think I'm being trolled:
I kept getting calls from bill collectors for someone named Karla.
@Karla? Well, now you know where to send the bill collectors.
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@masonwheeler said in I think I'm being trolled:
Meanwhile, in the apartment where I used to live, I kept getting calls from bill collectors for someone named Karla. No matter how many times I told them that I have no idea who she is and she's not available at this number anymore, people still kept on calling me, for years and years, trying to get the money Karla owed them.
When we moved in to our current house, it was literally cheaper to get Comcast service if we also got their phone service. We had no desire to use it, but I hooked a phone up to it just because. In the first month we got so many collections calls for whomever had the number before we did that I unhooked the phone again and never plugged it back in.
I am pretty sure that the pool of phone numbers at this point is full of nothing but numbers that used to belong to people who had a shitload of bad debt and changed their numbers.
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@masonwheeler said in I think I'm being trolled:
I kept getting calls from bill collectors for someone named Karla.
I first started getting phone calls for a local computer repair shop. It wasn't off-by-one-- I just got their number out of the pool.
Their number went into the pool because they went out of business.
The collection agencies started calling next. I still get one every few months. Given how many different collection agencies have called over time-- and given how they sell off uncollectable debts to other agencies for a fraction of the cost-- even if the original debt was the entire GDP of Guatemala, I'm pretty sure it's only worth a few pennies now.
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@Lorne-Kates said in I think I'm being trolled:
even if the original debt was the entire GDP of Guatemala, I'm pretty sure it's only worth a few pennies now.
Yeah, but those aren't really that far apart.
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@Polygeekery said in I think I'm being trolled:
@Lorne-Kates said in I think I'm being trolled:
even if the original debt was the entire GDP of Guatemala, I'm pretty sure it's only worth a few pennies now.
Yeah, but those aren't really that far apart.
¿El dinero sale de Guatemala y entra en Guatapeor?
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@Lorne-Kates said in I think I'm being trolled:
given how they sell off uncollectable debts to other agencies for a fraction of the cost-- even if the original debt was the entire GDP of Guatemala, I'm pretty sure it's only worth a few pennies now.
They might've acquired the debt for pennies, but it's still owed to them the full amount -- if one of them eventually figures out a way to collect on it, they win the lottery.
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@HardwareGeek said in I think I'm being trolled:
@masonwheeler said in I think I'm being trolled:
I kept getting calls from bill collectors for someone named Karla.
@Karla? Well, now you know where to send the bill collectors.
Pfft, if I gave them a wrong number do you really think I would give you guys the right one?
My husband's ex would leave his number and I would gladly say she doesn't live her but this is how you can reach her.
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When my brother and I got our first jobs working at the local McDonald's, he would get hit on by females a LOT. (He worked the registers, and I ran the fryer.) After turning down a few requests for his phone number, he decided to have a little fun with it, so he started giving out a phone number, but not our home phone (we didn't have cell phones then). He memorized the phone number for the local funeral home, and gave that out instead.
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@wft This is why you should stay away from people.
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Got a call today from another desperate. He used the "callee pays for this call" feature.
I would never date a guy who can't even pony up ¤0.29 for a minute of conversation. What a fucking cheapskate.
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This topic makes me feel popular.
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@anotherusername said in I think I'm being trolled:
They might've acquired the debt for pennies, but it's still owed to them the full amount -- if one of them eventually figures out a way to collect on it, they win the lottery.
I'm sure paying a room full of full-time employees to make phone calls 16 hours a day for 7 days a week will totally be worth it once Default Bob finally decides to pay off that 7 year-old $5000 debt.
Actually, I wonder what the stats are on repayment of debts that have been "bucketed and resold" more than 3 times. (Because there's certainly been more than 3 different collection agencies who called over time).
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@Lorne-Kates said in I think I'm being trolled:
Actually, I wonder what the stats are on repayment of debts that have been "bucketed and resold" more than 3 times.
about nil, that's why the first collector gave up and sold it, and the second layer, and the third. once you get down to the fourth layer it's mostly just hopefuls who are trying to break into the business, or who work it on the side as a way to have an excuse to pay their deadbeat relatives even though they utterly fail at accomplishing anything.
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@clatter Or a lady with an advert in a telephone box.
(lets see how long it takes people to get the one)
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@accalia said in I think I'm being trolled:
a way to have an excuse to pay their deadbeat relatives
Like this?